In 2022, the MRC led a beach seine program for fourth grade students in the Bellingham School District. Students attended a two hour field event where they observed the deployment and catch in a beach seine at Boulevard Park during the peak of the juvenile salmon outmigration period.
Seining events were preceded by a short talk from a Tribal elder or a guest scientist, who taught students about the importance of salmon to the Native American people and local ecosystem. Students were briefed on the function of the intertidal corridor to juvenile salmon, what they can expect to see during the seine set, and were provided a form to record the seine catch.
"Marine intertidal zones are migratory corridors for juvenile salmon, much like the sidewalks we use along the shoreline". - Mike MacKay, MRC member
Event 1 Results:
333 salmon smolts (2 Chinook, 8 Pinks, and the remainder Chum)
Event 2 Results:
2 hatchery chinook smolts and 52 native chum salmon
Event 3 Results:
1 5.7 cm hatchery chinook, starry flounder, shiner perch, sticklebacks, and numerous sculpins.